“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows two island foxes in Channel Islands National Park, Calif. Three fox subspecies native to California's Channel Islands were removed from the list of endangered species Thursday, August 11, 2016, in what federal officials have called the fastest recovery of any mammal listed under the Endangered Species Act. (Photo by Chuck Graham/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP Photo)

Beautiful woman and man playing domination games in bed. (Photo by nd3000/Getty Images)

Bob Steele, of Jefferson, Texas, positions his bears during The Great Bear Show at the Dubuque (Iowa) County Fair on July 25, 2012. (Photo by Jessica Reilly/Telegraph Herald)

Wadha al-Sayyed, wife of captive Lebanese soldier Khaled Moqbel, protests for his release and government action, near burning tyres blocking a road in Beirut, December 15, 2014. More than two dozen members of the Lebanese security forces are being held by Sunni Islamists. (Photo by Hasan Shaaban/Reuters)

Polling station officials dressed as traditional Balinese performers vote in Badung regency on the Indonesian island of Bali December 9, 2015 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Around 100 million Indonesians were expected to go to the polls on Wednesday in many parts of the country to elect heads of local government. (Photo by Wira Suryantala/Reuters/Antara Foto)

Soldiers of Ukraine's National Guard 1st brigade Bureviy (Hurricane) fire a recoilless cannon during combat training at a military training ground in the north of Ukraine Friday, November 3, 2023. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

A baby tamandua, or anteater, named Poco sticks out its tongue on May 31, 2018. ZSL London Zoo is celebrating the creature’s surprise birth after they found a male to be the companion of its mother Ria last October. (Photo by ZSL London Zoo/PA Wire)